Marva Collins

Early life

Collins was born in Monroeville, Alabama, to father, Henry Knight, a businessman who owned a funeral home and worked with cattle, and to mother, Bessie Knight (née Nettles). She grew up in Atmore, Alabama, a small town near Mobile, Alabama, during the time of segregation in the American South. When she was young, Collins went to a strict elementary school in a one-room schoolhouse in Atmore, Alabama, an experience which influenced her later in life. She graduated from Clark College (now known as Clark Atlanta University) in Atlanta, Georgia.

Career

Collins taught school for two years in Alabama, then moved to Chicago in 1959, where she taught as a full–time substitute teacher in inner–city Chicago Public Schools system for fourteen years.

Westside Preparatory School

Dismayed at the low levels of learning that she felt some students were experiencing in particular areas, Collins took $5,000 (a large sum of money at that time) from her own teacher's retirement fund and started a private school in the top floors of the brownstone in the West Garfield Park neighborhood where she lived in 1975.

The school she started was called Westside Preparatory School. Westside Prep became an educational and commercial success. Collins created her low-cost private school specifically for the purpose of teaching low income black children whom Collins felt that the Chicago Public School System had labeled as being learning disabled. Collins said she had the data to prove that students were teachable and were able to overcome obstacles of learning via her teaching methods, which she said eliminated behavioral issues and allowed students to flourish.

The one-room schoolhouse of her education influenced her methods. At home her father gave her assignments she believed built her confidence and gave her a sense of responsibility. She felt time spent with students was more valuable than distance-creating audio visual information.

Collins and her daughter ran the school for more than 30 years until it closed in 2008 due to lack of sufficient enrollment and funding.

Media coverage

Collins became well-known due to the 1981 TV movie based on her life's work entitled The Marva Collins Story, starring Cicely Tyson and Morgan Freeman. She also appeared on a featured news article on CBS's 60 Minutes. Cicely Tyson, who played Collins in the TV movie, said she spent time with Collins to research for the role. The 60 Minutes feature was inspired by a 1970s article written by Chicago Sun-Times reporter Zay N. Smith about Collins and Westside Prep.

Kevin Ross

In 1982, Kevin Ross, a 23–year-old Creighton University basketball player, got to his senior year of college without being able to read. With the assistance of a Creighton booster, Ross enrolled in second grade at Westside Prep. With private tutoring by Collins, Ross learned how to read and graduated in May 1983. Ross had difficulties continuing his education, but when he had serious troubles, Collins was instrumental in helping him.

Career highlights

Due to the success of her teaching methods, it was reported that President Ronald Reagan wanted to nominate Collins to the position of Secretary of Education, but Collins took herself out of the running for the position. In 1983, Reagan cited Collins during an unveiling of a national program to combat adult illiteracy. She was also asked by presidents, George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton to become secretary of education, but she declined in favor of teaching one student at a time. In 1994, Prince featured Collins in his music video for "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World." He also donated $500,000 to the Westside Preparatory School Teacher Training Institute, which was created to teach Collins' teaching methodology.

In 1996, Collins was hired to supervise three Chicago public schools that had been placed on probation. In 2004, Collins received a National Humanities Medal, among many awards for her teaching and efforts at school reform. During the 2006–07 school year, Collins' school charged $5,500 for tuition, and parents said the school did a much better job than the Chicago public school system, which budgeted $11,300 per student. The authorities complained that this was not enough.

Teaching methods

Collins was known for applying classical education, in particular the Socratic method, modified for use in primary schools, successfully with impoverished students. Collins criticized the teaching of the students, not the students themselves. She wrote a number of manuals, books and motivational tracts describing her history and methods.

Critics

In 1982 and in subsequent articles, Collins has been criticized by George N. Schmidt from Substance News, who claims that Collins' work was fraudulent. Collins denied any fraud. At the time, Collins had both supporters and detractors.

Personal life and death

Collins married Clarence Collins in September 1960. She had two sons (Patrick and Eric) and one daughter (Cynthia). Collins died on June 24, 2015 in Beaufort County, South Carolina, aged 78, while in hospice care.

Monographs

Video

Awards